New cyber security certification program

Designed to help bridge the IT and OT divide for cyber security professionals, GICSP certification will help companies understand basic needs for security individuals. Video: Program designers explain its scope and concepts.

Companies that want to make sure they have qualified cyber security people within their ranks will soon have a new tool to evaluate individuals they have designing their networks. The new GICSP (Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional) certification is intended to provide an outline for basic training to create engineers able to work in industrial environments, whether they come from the traditional IT side or OT. This program will be administered by GIAC, which describes the program:

“The GICSP is the newest certification in the GIAC family and focuses on the foundational knowledge of securing critical infrastructure assets. The GICSP bridges together IT, engineering, and cyber security to achieve security for industrial control systems from design through retirement.

“This unique vendor-neutral, practitioner focused industrial control system certification is a collaborative effort between GIAC and representatives from a global industry consortium involving organizations that design, deploy, operate and/or maintain industrial automation and control system infrastructure. GICSP will assess a base level of knowledge and understanding across a diverse set of professionals who engineer or support control systems and share responsibility for the security of these environments.”